New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-07-22
PRICE THREE CENTS.
ELEVEN ITALIANS KILLED.
AN ERIE EXPRESS TRAIN RUSHES THROUGH
A CROWD OF LABORERS.
TERRIBLE WORK OF THE LocoMorrvE-Boprrs.
LIMBS AND TOOLS FILL THE AIR-rKRRoR
or THE sURvrvoRs-MANY OF THE
WOUNDED MAY DIK-rHn SEC
rfON BOSS AND HIS As
sIsTANTs SEVERELY

WOUNDED MAY DIK-rHn SEC
rIoN BOSS AND HIS AS
sIsTANTs SEVERELY
CENsURED.
A disaster especially horrible in it's charactss
occurred yesterday on the Erie Railroad just
above Hohokus The Chicago express train No.
IL, which is due in Jersey City at 8; ;02 o'clock
every morning. plowed through gang of about
forty Italian laborers at work on the track
there, killing ten Of them almost instantly and
in1uring half dozen more so dangerously as to
make their recovery doubtful.
The scene Of the slaughter will be recalled by
those who have travelled much over the Erie
road. 1t is just the place where one would expect
an accident to happen, and more than one who
visited the spot yesterday remarked this. It IL
an embankment from thirty to fifty feet high with
pretty little valley containing Sylvan Lake on
one side and gently rolling country on the other
This embankment begins few hundred feet
north Of the Hohokus station, where road runs
under the track. A little above this point the
track begins to curve sharply to the left and
continues to do so for perhaps five hundred feet.
Then 1T runs straight for several rods until il
reaches short cut, which is spanned by another
bridge over which runs the Prospect-ave. road
way, At this bridge the is another curve in
the railroad, but to the right So sharp is this
curve that it is impossible for any one standing
even a short distance south Of this cut to SEQ
the track south of it. Between these two curves,
that shut out their view both north and south Of
them, the were at work ballasting the road
bed with broken stone.
The Erie people have been engaged in this work
for about year, and at present employ about
1900 Italian hborcrs at different points along
fbo nv,aca A;x,;l 81 svxn -
from fifty to or undred men in charge of
section bosses. Each section boss has one OK
more assistants, one of whom is supposed to be
able to talk to the men In their own language.
1t is the duty of the boss and his assistants to
keep themselves thoroughly Informed about the
running of all trains and to keep sharp lookout
for them, so as to get the men out of the way
in time to prevent accident They are supposed
to look out for the in regard to this entirely,
and the men are expected to work away until
they get warning to step of the track
THE USUAL PRECAUTIONS NOT OBSERVED.
So far as can be ascertained these precaution-
ary measures were not fully observed yesterday
by Martin Connolly, who was in charge Of the
unfortunate Italians who met their death. He
was on the spot or near 1t. The express train
was due; considerably over due in fact. 1t was
his business to know this and yet the hands
were allowed to work on, and actually did work
on with pick, shovel and tamping iron until the
big locomotive crushed the life out Of them.
The track between the Hohokus station and
the new station called Prospect, recently erected
about mile above 1t, was lowered on Sunday.
1t was desirable to have 1t ballasted at once.
Connoily's men. who had been at work all along
the line from Jersey City to Suffern, were set at
it on Monday. The work was pushed rapidly,
and by Wednesday night the space between the
two bridges was nearly half finished. The men
came down yesterday morning from the shanues
at the Mahwah gravel pit on construction train
that runs from Suffern. They got to work about
z o'clock.
All but five or six Of them were set to work on
the east bound track about $50 yards on the south
side Of the cut The others were taken by
Connolly north of the cut to finish up the track
there. The larger gang was in charge OF James
horrisey, who so far as can be harned can neither
understand nor speak Italian. Another assistant,
John Fitzsimmons, was stationed at the cut SO
Connolly asserts. to look out for trains from
the West. About quarter of an hour
after the men had got 10
work milk train, one Of the noisest kind. con-
sistng of twenty cars or more, came along from
Jersey City. As II was on the westbOund track tho
men kept on at work.
FATAL RUSH OF THE EXPRESS TRAIN.
The engineer Of this train had Just reached the
bridge when the express tram came tearing around
the curve at the rate Of forty miles an hour. Fitz-
simmons asserts that he saw 1t and yelled to the
men, but his voice was drowned in the noise of the
whistles on both engines. The milk train engineer
whistled on entering the cut as required. So did
the engineer of the express train, Samuel Evans.
The two whistles blended and the men. supp0sink
that they were made by the freight train locomo-
ye paid no attention to them 1i Connolly sSrcs ss
iaborers. He dld not hear Fitzsimmonss cries
at least so he asserts.and the first inti-
train Nc wa. 1aS MSen MorrseY pulled n
in front of it. Morrisey had seen the danger in
time to save himself and tried to tell the rest.
least third or more saw the DANGER too late and
became paralyZed with terror or did not see 1t ae
ali.
curve, and reversed his engine. butit was impossi:
bic, of course for him TO stop bis heavy train OF
eight cars. mostly sleeping coaches. IN 10 shorts
hardly slackened when the engine struck the nm
fortunate men. Evans blew the whistle again;
a,s heard tSs Sus psSS before fellow. ''as the
Ts locomotive % was upon them. Then followed sight
so terrible that strong men who saw it from dis
tance almost tainted. The, air for moment Was
literally filled with mangled and bles1 ling bodies
and limbs, shreds Of clothing. hats, shoes. and
pieces of picks, shovels and other tools One man
was hurled against the milk tram aud run over oy
two or three of the heavy freight cars. HIS legs
were cut off close 10 the trunk. and he was badly
inured about the head Yet he retained conscious
ness until the arrival Of the village priest. who
found him counting the beads of the rosary which
be had with him. He was thus engaged when no
died after receiving absoluti0n.
AnOih msa was almost cut in two by the express y
ear. The skulls of three more were crushed IN ana
their brains scattered along the track for nity
Yards All the rest of the ten were mangled fright
Iuily, almost beyond recoanition in fact One man
70 90 ,hrnwn in the Air and landed the other sld0
n the fence at the foot of the embankment. He
struck on his shoulder, dislocane It, he was able,
however TO walk for considerable distance after,
ward Int IL is Thought that he is fatally injured
nternally. The legs and arms Of one or two werc
,u, com petely off and carried for several rods BY
he wheels OF the train.
PASSENGERS GO BACK TO THE SCENE
The speed Of the express train was SO great that
Evans did not succeed IN slowing up until
10 had got beyond Hohokus. Few Of